1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to fluid jetting devices, and more particularly, to systems for priming the fluid jetting devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical fluid jetting device, such as an inkjet printhead, includes a fluid jetting chip having a nozzle plate either attached to or integrated with the fluid jetting chip that may be a thermal, piezoelectric, or mechanical jetting type of a chip. As used herein, the term fluid may relate to any type of a fluid, such as a priming solution, and the like. The fluid jetting chip is supported on a unit/substrate provided with one or more fluidic tiles. The fluid jetting device also includes one or more fluid chambers/tanks that supply a fluid to the fluid jetting chip and the nozzle plate for printing purposes.
Prior to use, a fluid jetting device needs to undergo priming in order to deliver reliable print quality and resolution. The term “priming” as used herein, refers to a critical maintenance step required to remove trapped air bubbles, which either restrict or even completely block fluid flow from being delivered to firing chambers from within a fluid jetting device in order to facilitate the fluid jetting device to operate properly without misprinting and to achieve a reliable print quality. Specifically, a fluid jetting device may be primed either during installation of a printer employing the fluid jetting device or during servicing of the fluid jetting device. In general, a disposable fluid jetting device is primed prior to sale, while a permanent or semi permanent fluid jetting device may be shipped to customers in either a dry or a primed state. A typical method for priming a fluid jetting device includes pumping of a fluid through a surface of a nozzle plate of the fluid jetting device using vacuum suction from nozzles' surface (i.e., vacuum priming), or raising fluid pressure from a fluid source (positive pressure priming), in order to remove trapped air bubbles from within the fluid jetting device.
Currently, it has been observed in the prior art that page wide fluid jetting devices (printheads) utilize narrow fluid jetting chips as very narrow print zones are required to tolerate unavoidable paper skew. However, such fluid jetting chips are more fragile and have a smaller surface area thereof than that of a usual fluid jetting chip. Accordingly, priming of the page wide printheads that employ narrow fluid jetting chips becomes difficult. Further, a narrow fluid jetting chip requires transverse fluidic fan-out to mitigate problems associated with the fabrication of a substrate of the fluid jetting chip and fluidic connections within the substrate that are coupled to one or more fluid tanks. It has been observed that fan-out micro fluidic channels associated with the available fluid jetting chip are easily inhabited by air bubbles due to their small cross sectional dimensions. At present, there is no method either disclosed or published that recites fluid recirculation through the fan-out fluidic channels. Accordingly, the aforementioned fluid jetting chip has a limited capability to remove trapped air bubbles from within the fan-out microfluidic channels.
Accordingly, there persists a need for an effective priming system for a fluid jetting device in order to overcome the drawbacks and limitations of prior art priming methods and/or systems. Specifically, there persists a need for systems for effective priming of fluid jetting devices that facilitate removal of trapped air bubbles from within the fluid jetting devices including the air bubbles entrapped within fan-out microfluidic channels of the fluid jetting devices, to achieve reliable print quality.